


ghosts that we knew

by orphan_account



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: It was a present okay shut up, ghost fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-19
Updated: 2014-09-19
Packaged: 2018-02-18 00:09:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,173
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2328125
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the Breach is closed, Raleigh needs to find some closure. He isn't quite prepared for the consequences.</p>
            </blockquote>





	ghosts that we knew

**Author's Note:**

> So, someone posted about this. And I thought I may as well write it. 
> 
> Happy late birthday! Sorry I missed the right day, college is killing me. Love you! (I fixed the thing. Fucking twitter fucking lying to me)

No one was exactly sure when it started. Herc was of the firm belief that if it really was ghosts, then it was probably Raleigh’s fault for buying the ‘goddamn stupid piece of crap’ Ouija board. He would have argued, but he had a sinking feeling he might be right.

It hadn’t been his best idea, he could admit that, but he needed to try something else. Five years hadn’t really helped. Drifting with Mako had, he could admit that, but it still wasn’t enough. There were undoubtedly better ways to do it, but he hadn’t been able to think of anything. Herc was gone for the week anyway, he had plenty of time to see if it would work without having to worry about bothering his boyfriend.

The afternoon that he bought the board was like a bad cliché from the beginning of a horror movie. It was rainy and miserable and he wasn’t sure if that boded well for what he was planning or not but it was definitely cliché. He knew that much without even thinking about it. The fact the light didn’t turn on when he got back to the room didn’t improve his mood much.

“Are you kidding me?” Raleigh groaned, tossing his jacket towards the bed as he tried the light switch again. “Is this some sort of cosmic bout of awful timing?”

He sat on the mostly clean ground, tossing one of Herc’s shirts vaguely towards the dresser while he struggled with the box with the other hand. By the time he got it open, he was starting to have more and more doubts about the entire thing. It was either a load of crap and there was no chance that it would work or it was going to work and something terrible was going to happen. He couldn’t exactly help but hope it would work, that things would go according to plan and Yancy would be able to hear him, but it did seem that it was more likely for things to fail utterly.

Raleigh sighed, scooping the board out of the box and setting it on the ground. He didn’t really know the protocol for attempting something like summoning a ghost, but it was all he could try and do. Dumb luck was probably going to be the only reason he’d succeed, but dumb luck wasn’t necessarily something that had let him down before. If Yancy was there, he’d answer. That was how they always were. Yancy would answer him if he could hear.

“Come on, Yance. Just answer me, if you’re there,” he said softly, lightly setting the pointer on the board and resting his fingers on it. “Anything, Yanyan. I don’t care, as long as you’re there.”

There was nothing for a few moments, just a growing feeling that he was wasting his time, until the pointer shifted under his fingers. He started to press down, part of him thinking it was best to hold it still, until he realised that something was moving it. Something that most definitely wasn’t him and most definitely could be his brother.

He glanced around, not sure what he was expecting to see, as he asked, “Yance? If you’re there, move it to the yes. Or however this works.”

Raleigh couldn’t help but suck in a deep breath as it started to move, not able to stop his eyes tracking the small piece of wood as it slowly moved towards the ‘yes’. It paused for a moment, clearly resting on the answer he’d been hoping for, and the grin that spread across his face was completely involuntary. Before he could ask another question or even start to formulate one, the pointer was moving again, faster this time as it travelled to the ‘L’. The smile wavered and shrank as he watched, moving his hands with it as it travelled to the ‘O’.

“Are you kidding me, Yancy?” he groaned, drawing his hand back as the pointer came back to rest on the ‘L’. “You’ve been dead for five years that’s all you have to say?”

The pointer didn’t move again but for a second he thought he could make out a laugh, the sort of laugh Raleigh heard from his brother all the time before things had gone to hell. There was a hint of warmth in the room for a second before it was gone again like nothing had happened. If it wasn’t for the lingering feeling of irritation and excitement, he could almost believe nothing had happened.

After that, it was like the floodgates had been opened. The box and its contents were buried in a box under the bed, tucked out of sight and after exactly how irritating his brother managed to be within a few minutes he wasn’t planning on getting it out again too soon. He also wasn’t expecting the piece of paper that fell on his face a few moments after he woke up. He groaned, sitting up as he flicked it open and squinted at the writing.

‘ _that was so stupid Rals. I can’t believe you’d try something like that’_

The notes kept coming. Putting away his clothes he found a piece of paper tucked into the sleeve of his sweater, another berating note accompanied by what had to be one of the worst jokes Yancy had ever made. At first, he couldn’t quite believe that it was really from Yancy. A few more days, a hell of a lot more mocking and playful notes, it was getting hard not to believe. Only Yancy could possibly manage to be that annoying about Herc without actually ever being in the same room.

It took almost a week for other things to start happening. It was slow at first, just the constant discovery of notes in exceedingly ridiculous places, but as time went on it stopped being quite so limited. Herc was the next person affected.

“Who the hell moved everything?” he ground out, dropping yet another pile of paperwork onto his previously cluttered desk.

Everything was in neat piles, perfectly organised and sorted in some system he didn’t understand and had never considered attempting. It didn’t look like something Raleigh would have done either, especially without one of many hard candies he seemed to have an endless supply of. He had a habit of leaving them whenever he had done something, just because he could. It was just the way they were doing things.

He sighed, sinking down into his chair as he looked at the rapidly growing piles of paperwork. No matter how much he managed to get through, there only seemed to be more. Herc had no idea how Pentecost had ever manage to juggle all of it but as the days went on, he was really starting to wish he did. There were too many things to do, especially with the UN breathing down his neck. All he could do was try not to get swamped and delegate as much as possible. It was the only thing that seemed to come close to working.

By the time he had finished the most urgent things and gotten through as many of the others as he could, he was surprised Raleigh hadn’t shown up to coax him back to the room. He always did that if he was gone through dinner, always, but apparently today was the exception. He wasn’t sure if he was relieved or not, but at least he’d managed to stop before midnight. There was enough finished that he could take the rest of the night off. There had to be enough done, considering how much of it was now in the mess that used to be a completed pile.

He only paused long enough to coax the exhausted bulldog out from under his desk, nudging him towards the door with his foot as he grabbed his vest from the back of the chair. He spared a glanced for the mess of papers, silently making a note that he needed to find out who had organised it the first time, before following Max out of the office. That was an issue for another day, after he’d had a little sleep.

He’d barely left the room before the papers started to shuffle, rearranging into the same neat piles that they’d been in before Herc had started work. It only took ten minutes for everything to be where it belonged, the same system Pentecost had always used since he became Marshal. He hadn’t planned to still be cleaning up his office after he had died but Herc wasn’t exactly brilliant at keeping everything organised. A little longer wouldn’t hurt. It was good to see his friend was okay, even after everything that had happened. That didn’t mean the constant mess wasn’t a little grating.

‘ _Herc._

_I know things are difficult but you might make more headway if the papers are in some sort of order. The piles they’re currently in should be simple enough to keep organised. A system will help, trust me._

_Stacker.’_

It wasn’t the best note he’d even written, not by a long shot, but it got the point across. Considering Yancy’s recent antics, the odds of Herc believing it was actually him seemed better than they had before. Yancy was definitely the one responsible for half the Dome talking about ghosts and hauntings, considering the notes that kept dropping on his brother’s head. Better to try now, when the theories were already circulating, and just hope that Herc would listen. He had quite a few people waiting. He couldn’t just clean up after his friend forever, no matter how annoying the messy desk was.

A lot of things were radically different but some things hadn’t changed at all, even after the end of the war. The Wei Tangs still had the same habit of playing basketball through the halls. At first, it was strange to see the ball that had always been in Crimson’s bay rolling through the halls, seemingly unaccompanied at first. It was hard to spot them, especially when they were moving so fast, but soon enough the rumour mill had even more things to talk about. The Wei triplets, running through the halls and tossing the basketball just like they used to. Laughing and grinning as they raced each other, making impossible throws and catches over the heads of the other people in the halls until the ball rolled away and they were gone too. It hurt at first to have such a vivid reminder, to have them, running through the halls but it got easier. They were gone but they were together and they were so very happy. They’d helped won and they were still together. Even Mako, one of their oldest friends, couldn’t help but feel a little happy. They were always best when they were together.

The Kaidanovsky’s were the last to arrive. It was subtler than some of the others, just Cherno’s empty bay suddenly not being so empty anymore. Things started to move around, the bay falling back into the same order it always had been. If it wasn’t for the looming absence of the jaeger, it would almost be like nothing had happened. By the time the thumping music was playing through the dome again, spanners flying out of Cherno’s bay every time the Wei’s basketball bounced past, it really seemed that nothing had changed. They’d won and, even if their bodies were gone, it was almost like they were still there. In the end, the only one missing was Chuck.

In all honesty, Raleigh hadn’t expected him to ever turn up. It had been almost half a year since the other ghosts had started to appear, all of them slowly making their way into the world of dome. Even after the base of operations moved to Sydney, due to political complaints, they still came along. Everything had fallen into some strange sort of system. Even Herc was starting to get used to finding notes from Yancy tucked into the most ridiculous places, but there was no sign of Chuck. Raleigh was starting to actually like the fact, the longer things went on.

“Oi, cunt, why the fuck are you in my old man’s room and where the hell is he?”

He froze, glancing over at the indistinct patch of haze that almost seemed to be glaring at him, before offering, “Look, Chuck. It’s been half a year.  I am your father. I mean, step-father. I—”

“HE FUCKING MARRIED YOU?” The haze flickered before solidifying slightly more as the tirade only continued. “IT HASN’T EVEN BEEN A FUCKING YEAR AND THE FUCKING TOSSER’S OFF HIS FUCKING HEAD. WHERE IS HE? WHY YOU?”

Raleigh groaned, rubbing his eyes as he slumped back against the desk. That was definitely the one ghost he was hoping wouldn’t pop back in, purely because he didn’t want to try and deal with a rant like this. Maybe trying to get in contact with Yancy had some less than desirable consequences.


End file.
